49er Gold Rush - the 2nd strangest thing that's ever happened to me

I love the NCAA Basketball tournament – March Madness. I don’t know anything about any of the teams, but I like to pick them anyway and compete and I like running a pool. I had made my picks last week and decided to enter a couple of free contests online. I got an email from KNBR (for those not in the Bay Area, KNBR is the main sport radio station) and I went to their website to enter my picks.

I saw this:

WHAT ARE YOUR CREDENTIALS TO JUDGE THE GOLD RUSH (The Gold Rush is the SF 49ers cheerleader squad) We're looking for one discerning individual to help judge the 49er Gold Rush Auditions Saturday, March 25 at Stanford. What are your credentials? Send your resume to murphandmac@knbr.com by Noon this Friday, March 17. This could be the best assignment you've ever had!

Of course, I have no credentials to judge much of anything, but just to amuse myself, I decided to send something in and I sent the following:

My Gold Rush Judging Resume (top 10 reasons I should be chosen to be the discerning individual)

1. I love admiring beautiful women
2. I haven't had a date in over a year
3. I enjoy the beauty of the female form shaking their money maker
4. I can judge without being judgemental (the mental part comes in because I have a Mensa level IQ)
5. I like to have fun
6. I watch American Idol and I'm a trained improvisor, so I could play either the Randy Jackson or Simon Cowell role - I wouldn't try to do Paula after Barry Bonds nailed it and I don't look that good in a wig and high heels.
7. I know what discerning means
8. did I mention I love admiring beautiful women?
9. I am a big sports fan
10. My all time highlight of my Fantasy Football career (I've been playing it since 1979 when I got a copy of the original rules from the Kings X bar) is when I was in Australian outback and didn't find out until a week later that Joe Montana had thrown 5 TD's to Jerry Rice against Atlanta and I had both of them on my team, so I'm a big 49er fan.

Not all of this is true – I have had a date in the last year and I’m only a 49er fan when I have their players on my fantasy football team, but I figured that didn’t matter much.

Today I found out that they’ve picked me, so this Saturday, I’ll be going to Stanford and spend 2 grueling hours judging 250 potential Gold Rush dancers.

They announced my name on the radio as the winner and on March 16th, they mentioned my entry - http://www.thomascoates.com/media/goldrush-maybe-pile.mp3

Update...

49er Gold Rush Cheerleader Auditions 2006

Below are the two best photos I was able to get. The guest judges (mostly luxury box holders) were up in the stands at the Maples Pavilion at Stanford. There were over 400 auditioners and by the time we got there, they had pared it down to around 150. It was really hard work - they were there since 8am. It's just like any showbiz thing, there are some that can do the steps and then there are those that feel the music and have fun. There are 40 dancers on the squad and they make all those returning audition also. You could tell some were more experienced than others.

They practiced about 15 times in big groups before the auditions started. Then they broke into groups of three. I heard this Jealous, Jealous Boyfriend song about 75 times and I hope I never hear it again. #124 in the hot pink & white was my favorite, so her final audition is in the second part of the video.

Here is the link for the video - http://www.thomascoates.com/media/goldrushmovie.wmv